The latest addition to Apex Legends’ character roster is Valkyrie, the daughter of Titanfall 2 villain Viper. And while she may not have a Titan herself, her kit is a direct tribute to her dad’s Northstar mech.Valkyrie’s key equipment is her jetpack, and her kit is built around that feature. The ‘VTOL Jets’ make her incredibly mobile, replicating the flying nature of the Northstar Titan. That’s just the start of the mech similarities, though; like a Northstar, Valkyrie has a Missile Swarm that deploys from shoulder-mounted launchers. Respawn compares this ability to a “mini Bangalore ultimate”, although expect much lower damage. The explosions do stun, though, so affected enemies will experience a short debuff to movement and aim speed.Her ultimate ability is Skyward Dive, which is effectively a team evacuation manoeuvre in which Valkyrie picks both her teammates up and soars into the sky as a trio. This can help an entire team escape danger and redeploy in a more advantageous position.
Skyward Dive will also activate Valkyrie’s Titanfall-style HUD (in fact any high-altitude move will activate this, be that using launch pads or the initial jump at the start of a match.) This HUD will highlight any enemy player that Valkyrie has line of sight on, within a certain range. This helps provide valuable intel before hitting the ground.
As a recon class, Valkyrie can use the beacon terminals around the map to learn where the next ring will be located. She can obviously reach these thanks to her VTOL Jets, but it should be noted that the jetpack has limited fuel on a slow cooldown, so fuel consumption should be on the mind of every player. The VTOL jets are also loud, so draw attention. And while in the air, you’ll have to turn the jets off to be able to use your weapons again (although thankfully you can use the Missile Swarm mid-flight if you have it ready).In addition to Valkyrie, this season of Apex Legends introduces a new weapon: the Bocek compound bow. This medium range precision bow and arrow has all the hallmarks of a classic video game bow; slow but quiet, huge damage, and difficult to master. It uses a new bespoke arrow ammunition type, which will be difficult to find, but they can be retrieved from the environment if you miss, or the deathbox of a player you kill.
To help make the Bocek versatile, a Shatter Cap hop-up can be fitted to it, which turns the bow into a close-range shotgun-style weapon, shooting multiple scatter arrows at a time. For more confident users, the Deadeye’s Tempo hop-up provides a buff to drawback speed if you can repeatedly fire on the ‘beat’ of your bow pull.
Valkyrie and the Bocek will both be added as part of Apex Legends’ Legacy update, which goes live on May 4. Additionally, a brand new 3v3 mode will be available, called Arenas.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/apex-legends-valkyrie